Bill and Melinda Gates on Top 3 Myths of Poverty

1/21/2014 7:30AM

Many people think poverty is increasing around the world. But in fact things are getting better almost everywhere, say Bill and Melinda Gates. They talk with WSJ's Gary Rosen about three deeply damaging myths about global poverty and development.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... I ... are we losing the battle against global poverty is foreign aid away ... and does it contribute to overpopulation ... our guests today Bill and Melinda Gates answer an emphatic no to all three questions they join us this morning from Seattle good morning ... Monday morning ... well so I'm that that to him you've written a piece for The Wall Street Journal over the weekend in your foundation ... releases its annual letter today and in in both of these you want to combat these nets these destructive myth so so Bill let's start with you ... and the FirstNet ... isn't that just realism ... that the view that a lot of people in America have ... that the pour around the world are pretty much doomed this tape or that we haven't made much progress there ... yet it's easy for people to be confused about that because they are often seen ... pictures of poor countries I think while ... were rich their foreign aid it seems like a constant ... however ... a ... their wealth of bills for countries has been changing ... many day you would of thought of this as for now ... middle income Brazil China ... I am and saw many countries moving up ... and it really is an amazingly positive story ... it's taken place just in the last generation ... in fact I predict in the lead letter that was up almost note for countries ... within the next twenty years ... well so um what are some especially impressive cases especially places you visit and say ... two decades ago and where your active now through the foundation ... aam and I were an ... eye on Mexico City in nineteen eighty seven in you can see people carrying water drugs around and was really quite Legion fireman so when you go back now you can say wow this is a city with ... a mostly middle class people here ... and stretching Mexico's rich enough ... of that they're self-sufficient ... they don't receive a lot of data were not ... having to put our resources there were putting him in the countries that are moving not ... have a chance of becoming self sustaining like Mexico and so ... on ... most the world's population Aus middle income ... the ... about two billion ... pedestal for week and ... I call most of those ... in a very ... defined period of time by having the right programs also speaking of these programs there's this whole question of foreign aid and this is the second and if you want to deal with ... there is this common impression that foreign aid is in effect gives it it means to create the correction ... of writing it down it it creates a kind of economic dependence says oh is is this view so wrong ... also if you just focus on headlines seem see a lot of stories about ... the programs that don't work ... on the back seat each in a very small piece that was misdirected ... offered sample in global fund a two percent he's the isthmus threat to the global Fund found itself ... and not really highlighting that ninety eight percent begins to ... of large effectiveness ... the ability to understand how to measure outcomes of the world's got a lot better about ... after all linen I are very analytical we wanna make sure the money were given has big impact on we've chosen ... a lot of these teen oriented programs for the ... the Foundation's focus ... so the answer is that he has a lot of great hits overall it's very valuable ... even though there are some cases that that a house and to achieve its goals ... now it using the thing is especially effective in certain key sectors where where do you think been great successes of four native tongue ... well how can a culture of the two that ... are really are enabling ... out allowing ... a chance ... on to be ... healthy so they can learn and contribute ... allowing the farming sector to ... give that nutrition and ... free up labor for ... other activities also the two most of living ... so so Melinda to turn to this this third myth BB overpopulation if ... this is a special concern of yours because of your interest ... in reproductive health so it so I did tell me abt what what what's the problem with this view is that ... well it's interesting that my interest because my interest in women and girls in the economic opportunities that they can have to lift their families ... and I traveled around the globe you know Oprah over a decade now ... I NetEase when any ... one access to contraceptives they know about the under educated about them and they say why can't I get them ... and when you look at the global statistics which you start to realize is that we have two hundred million women ... would like to have access to contraceptives two dollars ... and the reason I wanted to write this and this though is when I come back to the you ask people say to me ... you know after the bid talk to me troubles but that if you kill or Simi nice children out with other partners through vaccines ... are we gonna over populate the planet that's a belief in the United States and its ... and the reason we have that meant that persists is that Paul Ehrlich was very ... successful with his bucket nineteen sixty eight the population bomb ... telling people were to overcome the planet were to over populate the planet when in fact when you look at what's happened since the late nineteen sixties ... country after country where women are educated have access to contraceptives ... don't actually bring down the birth rate their children as more of their children live ... well so I'm ... let me ask you add both of you really a broader question you view in the past with your annual letter talked about the activities of the foundation here ... here here trying I think it into shape opinion about the sort of work you do why why is it important to do this what what them what effect you hope to have ... bullies men served ... up ... it's understandable why ... people might leave them ... in the Dooley of them ... then they would ... retain the work of our foundation really is a waste as well as the big government aid programs going after those same area so we decided to take and ... just really drive home ... odd that these are ... aam believes ... of that don't have evidence in fact the evidence of the countryside is why we're so excited ... how we want people to be more of the more committed ... um we're talking about how to do this cup batter ... what now now also in I think you're very candid about this you do have a kind of I'm agenda ... policy wise and that ... you think it would be good for the U S and other Western countries to contribute more ... in foreign aid so he can you talk a little bit about how the foundation ... works with government programs as many people consider them to be these very separate things and they think oh the Gates Foundation ... is business oriented ineffective and then we have all these government programs that are hopeless failures incorrect ... was a late evening a specific example we were on the grounds Ethiopia with a whole host of partners ... aam on Health for women children and and and it's because the Ethiopian government has built out their primary healthcare centers these little health posts ... eighteen thousand of them around the country staff with to rein in its thirty thousand healthcare workers ... and what we do in partnership with people like us AIG and UNICEF to help screen vaccines is wheat each do our peace in supporting that primary health post ... working with the government Ethiopia to say what are the lifesaving medicines ... that women and children and men should have that we know will bring down the childhood illness that of that mentality in this country so we work side by side ... and we actually critique each other's work ... and if we see a supply chain issuer medicines are flowing or vaccines are going ... we flow that information back to one another ... well okay one final point here though so ... where were seeing tough economic times ... here in the U S in your up ... lots of people out of work pressure on government spending ... that we spend already entirely too much of public funds on for a day and then can we really afford to spend anymore as important is that might be ... for the United States and so a bit less than one percent of its budget on foreign aid ... and icy of all the parts of the budget that's for you can see the impact millions of lives saved countries being uplifted to become self sufficient ... OS I wish we would would spend more ... other European governments to spend a bit over three percent of their budget ... and so we're nowhere near that the most generous ... but people should feel good about war going on and ... innovation ... in a look at the partnerships we have the government see are we getting smarter or we we doing this the best rate possible ... I think Bill points out in his part in a letter in foreign aid will we see in the global fund working mean the difference to what's happening on the ground in Africa ... people sleeping under bed nets children seeking other bed nets mothers will tell you we've not seen malaria in our community we use to see it six years ago ... that's the difference because of the global fund ... and that's why we feel so strongly to make sure that that money continues to flow because we meet the people ... the families are actually affected by a ... very good twelve year annual letter to short to provoke lots of discussion and maybe even some change so I Bill and Melinda Gates things very much for joining us ... the thank you ... for Wall Street Journal weekend Revue I'm Gary Rosen ...